Titel
Oxytocin but not naturally occurring variation in caregiver touch associates with infant social orienting
Matthew R. Longo
Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck, University of London
Denis Mareschal
Department of Psychological Sciences Birkbeck, University of London
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Abstract
Caregiver touch is crucial for infants’ healthy development, but its role in shaping infant cognition has been relatively understudied. In particular, despite strong premises to hypothesize its function in directing infant attention to social information, little empirical evidence exists on the topic. In this study, we investigated the associations between naturally occurring variation in caregiver touch and infant social attention in a group of 6- to 13-month-old infants (n = 71). Additionally, we measured infant salivary oxytocin as a possible mediator of the effects of touch on infant social attention. The hypothesized effects were investigated both short term, with respect to touch observed during parent–infant interactions in the lab, and long term, with respect to parent-reported patterns of everyday touching behaviors. We did not find evidence that caregiver touch predicts infant social attention or salivary oxytocin levels, short term or long term. However, we found that salivary oxytocin predicted infant preferential attention to faces relative to nonsocial objects, measured in an eye-tracking task. Our findings confirm the involvement of oxytocin in social orienting in infancy, but raise questions regarding the possible environmental factors influencing the infant oxytocin system.
Stichwort
infancyoxytocinparental caresocial orientingtouch
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1640424
Erschienen in
Titel
Developmental Psychobiology
Band
64
Ausgabe
6
ISSN
0012-1630
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Publication
Wiley
Fördergeber
Europäische Union (alle Programme) — 721895
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2022 The Authors
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